Time
The old sage wandered through the forest of Kan, stopping every now and then to touch a tree or linger for a moment as he watched the beauty of nature. To anybody watching he would have appeared to be in a daze, but he was truly connected with all things. The more he connected with nature and the seasons the more they opened up their secrets to him. In his younger years he was always in a hurry to get somewhere, to learn more, to do more, but as he got older he realized that he was a part of all things.
He came to the Lake of Li, sat on a log and and stared out into its waters. He was waiting for his students to arrive. Years ago if the students were not waiting when he arrived for the lesson they would be banished for ever, but now as he got older, his teaching had changed. He knew that the students would arrive based on their Elements and how they saw time. For time was different for everyone. This was long before Einstein and his theory of relativity.
The old sage fumbled with the plum red sash on his robe. For a moment he was the young student again, sitting at the feet of his master who was dressed in a plum red robe. It was his master, one of a group of 33 sages, who had taught him about nature and the cycles within man. He had studied with the other 32 sages but nothing they taught him could compare the teachings about nature. In the last 55 years he had lived in the forest and studied and lived with nature. Over the years students had been drawn to him and he would teach them all that he knew. Some would even love nature so much that they would take these teachings to other countries and share them.
He watched as his first two students arrived. It was the Fire and the Air students. Nothing strange in that they we nearly always the first to arrive but for very different reasons; reasons he would share with all of them when the others arrived. The first two students were getting upset when they third student arrived. It was water and she was always late. The three students were arguing when the Earth student arrived. He sat down quietly and waited for the sage to begin. None of the other students had even seen Earth arrive and they continued to argue.
The sage smiled to himself, turning his attention inward he began, "Time itself does not exist it is something that man has constructed to allow him to know when to eat or meet someone. How each of us view time is a good indicator of our personality. For the introvert, time is one continuous line, whereas for the extrovert time is discontinuous. The introvert (Air/Water) has strong memories of the past and becomes distressed if the past is invalidated. For them, the past is important because it is what the present and the future is created from. Before stepping into a new situation, they check to see if it meets the requirements of success on previous occasions. Anything new is taken in and compared to the wealth of data that the introvert has already collected; if it is a totally new situation, then the introvert may not choose to go forward whereas, the extrovert under the same situation will probably go forward just for the chance for a new experience."
The old man’s eyes came back to normal and he turned towards Huo (Fire). "What do you remember of your childhood?"
Huo raised his head slightly and looked up towards the right, "nothing before the age of ten and after that, only certain experiences. I guess I do not focus energy on the past. Once it’s gone it’s gone. That's weird. I am trying to remember my childhood and I can remember some of the things I did and achieved, but no actually memory of them, and yet I can picture in my mind what the future is going to be and some of the pictures are so real I am sure that they will happen."... Then a picture flashed through Huo’s mind, of writing and teaching about the Elements and he was sure it was so. The future memory was so strong, it was as though on some level it had already happened and the key for Huo was to bring the vision into the now. How often had he given up on what he was doing, in the chance to take a new direction or try something different? His passion always burned brightly when something new offered itself. His past was littered with unfinished projects and unfinished courses. Even past relationships lay unfinished, either financially or emotionally. It was much easier to move onto something new than finish what was already dead, as far as he was concerned.
It did not matter where he looked, forward or back, in the present, or in the people and the Nature around him, in everything was the Elements. When he began the training with the old man, he thought he was getting into a mystery school full of theoretical teachings, but what he got was a mystery school full of experience. The Mystery school of the Elements was there for anybody with the eyes to see. From that moment the world had become a living thing. No longer were rocks and trees separate from him. All of Nature had become his teacher and he their humble student. It was true that the more you learn the more that you realise that you know nothing. Huo had opened up a box of infinite potential. No wonder the ancient tribal people had no writing; it was certainly not due to ignorance. In their world, you had to have a deep understanding of Nature and this could only come through experience. A written story of a flood or a bush fire did not prepare one for the experience. How Taoist was the old man’s teaching? A word for something was never the thing itself. Through the old man's teaching Huo was experiencing his own Fire. The word Fire was not the experience. How easy it would have been to get lost in the words without the experience. Huo thought about how we had become a society where we only had second hand experiences. Much of what we see and do come through a filter called the media. How much of the adventure of life has been stripped from our souls? With the invention of computers, the information super-highway we are becoming more and more removed from the (adventure) experience of living. The story is never the experience, sometimes the stories light our passion for the experience but we need to have our own adventures.
Time, what a subject, he thought; a subject that man has talked about since the cliched beginning of time. He could never understand why many of those around him never shared his optimism about the future. It did not matter how bad things were, he always believed that the future would be better. Of course he was speaking from his Element.
The old sage now had all their attention, so he continued, “The Fire person, like the Element burns in the direction towards the future. They draw the future into the present, as a living reality. Out of a balance, they are always living in the future and their lives are full of potential and little else. In balance, they affirm and live in the present with a confident belief of what the future holds. Time for them is unstructured. Things go on endlessly for Fire; even death to them is not an end. They are fascinated by the concept of the noble death of warriorhood. The kamikaze pilots of the Second World War or the samurai, both proponents of the noble death came from a Fire country. To die for a greater glory in the future is such a Fire thing to do.’
Looking back on his own life, Huo had sacrificed himself on so many occasions under the belief that the future would bring him greater riches.
“Fire hates to be pinned down and be regulated. Fire’s are like a horse that needs to be given their head. Too tight a rein and you will break their spirit or be consumed by their anger; their fire out of a balance. Allow them their space and time and they will warm all those around them.’
A sense of peace enveloped Huo as he began to understand his own element. How many times had he punished himself for his shortcomings? Now he knew where he had come from, and where he was at. His element was not an excuse for his failures but a point of change. He was always at the point of choice.
The old man smiled as knew that Huo would be the student who would carry on the teachings. He turned his attention to Shui (Water), "Water has a deep sense of the fragility of life, because it touches it at all levels. The Water Element seeks to preserve self and loved ones by the conservation of energy. Water has a deep memory of the past and any decisions are based heavily on past experiences. Water sees life as a continuous flow of experience from past, through present and onto the future. But wherever the future goes, it takes the past with it.
"There is no separation for the Water Element. Even when loved ones are not around the deep emotions are still felt. In many ways they are so child-like, needing to experience the emotions that they experienced in childhood. Faithful to emotional commitments, they are generally monogamous and have a want and gift for nurturing the young and innocent.
"Whereas Water can be the power behind the throne, Air has more a sense they have a purpose in the passage of time. Their sense of time is heavily reliant on history and they constantly use history to reference what they are saying. Like the Water Element, the Air Element sees the past to the future in a linear progression, but they have more a sense for timing, believing that things will get better with time, for they have prepared for it. They believe in a structured environment and generally see life as a progression of logical steps."
The old sage had only spoke briefly of the Earth's perception of time, but in those words there was a great deal of knowledge. "For the Earth was present-oriented, existing in this moment only without reference to the past. What is done is done. They are sense indulgent, and delay time by being total absorbed in the moment and losing themselves in the peak experience. They are at the end, the death, so they are inherently aware of the transitory nature of the physical body.If it feels good, do it; could be their catch cry."
The old sage turned his back on his students and stared again into the deep waters of the Lake of Li, in the Forest of Kan. The students knew the teaching about time was finished and it was now their role to take time for themselves to allow the teaching to unfold.
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